


ain't it a gentle sound (the rolling in the graves)

by gnarleyquinn



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, F/F, Minor Character Death, Zombie Apocalypse, but also lesbianism, maybe so, walking dead rules apply
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:48:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23284294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gnarleyquinn/pseuds/gnarleyquinn
Summary: “I don’t think walkers like cactus, Nic.” She says, pulling Nico by the arm toward the RV they’d managed to ride out the majority of this mess through.“We’re in the Mojave. Greens are all the rave out here.”ordon't listen to hozier and write a zombie apocalypse au
Relationships: Karolina Dean/Nico Minoru
Comments: 4
Kudos: 59





	ain't it a gentle sound (the rolling in the graves)

**Author's Note:**

> CW: As a zombie au there are some graphic descriptions of blood and gore throughout this story. Pls read with your best interests in mind!

Karolina’s eyes glaze over when she shoots the walker.

“Are you sure? It looks more like pink to me.” She says it like it’s nothing, like the deep red of the blood oozing out of the decomposing forehead of a creature thought only to exist in nightmares isn’t anything. That their conversation about the sunset took prevalence over any life endangering situation they could encounter in the middle of the desert. 

Nico supposes it _isn’t_ anything. Or at least she pretends, for Karolina’s sake. 

“Tenth one today.” Nico says.

She gazes on as Karolina smirks over her shoulder. The sun is hot, the palpable rays creating a glossy distortion across the desert surrounding them, but the dead walker in front of Karolina is clear as day. She spins the pistol around her finger, allowing it to come to a stop once it reaches her harness. A glare reflects off the sheen of the gun. Nico has to pull her sunglasses down.

“Is that a record?” Karolina asks.

“I think Chase’s twelve has you beat.” Karolina’s smirk falls, only a little bit.

“Right,” She says, “Maybe I can finally crack that tonight.” 

“I think we should ease the noise,” Nico says, “Ten in one day hasn’t been normal for a while.”

Nico knows they don’t have to worry about the sound too much. The walkers are getting weaker, and fewer and further between. Karolina’s daily counts have been as low as two a day. Nico wishes the beginning could’ve been this easy, but regardless, no matter how easy they are to kill now, they’re still dangerous. 

“That’s the _point_ , Nico,” Karolina walks over to her, resting her arms atop Nico’s shoulders, “It’s finally getting fun again.” 

(Nico doesn’t really know when it started being _fun_. Maybe somewhere in between Chase and Molly, but all Nico could see through relentless weeks of bloodbaths were Karolina’s eyes hardening a little more every night. But if target practice on living corpses is what kept her girl around, she could say it’s fun, sure.) 

“I’m just saying,” Nico raises her own hands to Karolina’s, “We don’t know this area too well and it’s going to get dark soon. I don’t want to run into some random hoard that’s managed to get by on cactus and coyote this entire time.” 

Karolina laughs and Nico can’t help but shoot a smirk of her own. 

“I don’t think walkers like cactus, Nic.” She says, pulling Nico by the arm toward the RV they’d managed to ride out the majority of this mess through. 

“We’re in the Mojave. Greens are all the rave out here.” 

Karolina laughs and pulls Nico into the RV with her, blocking out the remainder of the sunset when she closes the door.

-

When the news broke out, it was still a normal school day. They placed the high school on lockdown immediately after first period. Nico remembers thinking it was a code blue drill and pulling Karolina into a random supply closet so they could have a little fun during something so routine, so _normal_. 

It seems insignificant now, making out with your girlfriend in a janitor’s closet while people were being torn to pieces right down the street. They only figured out something was wrong when they started hearing screams. 

Nico took one look through the small window of the door before seeing _something_ chase a student down the hall. It didn’t look human. She checked her phone, twitter taking nearly 5 minutes to load when she saw the headlines.

_Breaking: 10 Dead and 4 Wounded in Downtown LA After Police Engage Fire With Man Under the Influence_

_Breaking: Death Toll Rises as Injured Patients Attack Waiting Room at Cedars-Sinai Hospital_

_Breaking: California National Guard and FBI Called to Assist - Could this be an Ancient Form of Mad Cow Outbreak?_

“Oh my god.” 

She remembers the terror in Karolina’s eyes, feeling the same in her own, and when cell phone service went out and clunky footsteps started tearing through the halls the only thing she could think to do was barricade the door with the cheap shelving unit next to them. 

She doesn’t know how long they were in there. Hours, maybe. Her phone was dead by the time they felt safe enough to come out. 

They roamed the empty halls to find the classrooms barren, and Nico will never forget the feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was pure carnage throughout the hallway. Dead students, teachers, police officers. She didn’t know who they were. She didn’t want to. She refused to look at their faces. 

They never found out how it started. All they knew was that one day dead people just started roaming the streets and eating people alive. Somehow, that made it better. There was no definitive, _it couldn’t be beat_ , there was still hope. When half of their suburb ended up in the church, hiding behind the safety of scripture that they didn’t believe in and the promise of saving lost souls, Nico thought that maybe things would be okay. Her parents were there, their friends. Their community was suddenly condensed into one small space, but that was okay, they were together, and if they were together, things could be normal.

-

“Did you hear that?” Nico’s spine tingles at the sound of metal dragging across the RV. The sun had finally set and darkness took over the RV. They’d shut off the engine and the lights by that point. (They might have been risk takers, but they didn’t have a deathwish.)

Karolina eyes the side of the RV it came from, but they’re only met with silence and the small gusts of wind the night had brought. 

“It’s probably nothing,” Karolina says, “Let’s just go to bed.” 

Nico nods and follows, the feeling of Karolina’s right arm wrapped around her and her left hand clutching the pistol underneath their pillow.

-

Things started to fall apart when Jonah took over.

It was one of those weird days. The kind where the sky is blue and the sun is shining and it felt as if Nico hadn’t seen a nice day since she was five years old. 

Things were starting to slow down that day, they were starting to feel better. Until they weren’t. 

There was a lockdown, Nico remembers how abrupt it was. One moment they were helping load water bottles into the kitchen of the church and the next all of the doors were locked and the curtains were being lowered. They’d heard screams from the chapel and a wave of panic ran through Nico. When she’d turned to look at Karolina, she knew her emotions weren’t exclusive.

It was Alex who had run into the kitchen, she remembers he hadn’t left yet, screaming about some group of people trying to overrun the church. All she could make out in the chaos was _Leslie, Frank_ , and the word hostages before Karolina was pushing past them all in a beeline for the chapel. 

It felt like slow motion, the way Nico chased after her, screaming her name. She saw Karolina’s eyes widen at the sight of the shotgun, saw the moment she locked eyes with her parents for the last time. She held her back as the shots went off, felt the weight on her arms as Karolina slipped to the floor beneath them, her screams lost in the mix of the gunshots still ringing in Nico’s ears. 

The amount of blood that stained the white curtains surrounding the altar was astounding. Nico didn’t know that so much blood could come from the head of a human being. 

(She wishes she could erase the memories of that day. The front stage was all chipped skull and blood and brains and every time she closed her eyes she saw the bullets create carnage of Karolina’s parents. She saw the terror in Karolina’s eyes and heard the desperation that ripped through her lungs.)

She remembers her own mom running over, picking the two of them up off the floor and hurrying them into the basement, repeatedly saying, “ _He can’t know who she is. He’ll kill her too._ ”

Her mom had brought them to one of the bedrooms in the very back. It had been a refugee center for months, filled with cots and chests for what little belongings people had held onto. Before the world ended, Nico remembered they’d kept the runaways who’d come to be saved here. She always thought it was stupid back then. 

(Nico thinks it’s funny, now. Churches were never on her good side—especially celebrity cult churches owned by her lesbian girlfriend’s parents—but it had become an actual place of salvation, a point of community. It became everything it was meant to be in the face of utter damnation. 

As if every word uttered in that stupid book about light and belonging was achievable in _some_ way, through this mess they were calling a ‘Period of Darkness.’)

Nico almost wanted to believe it. Almost. 

Then, a man with a rain warped flyer and a shotgun stormed the building. So much for a messiah.

Nico’s mom brought them to Leslie’s office. The room was so still, as if it had been frozen in time. Nico remembers how the candles were still lit, and the full glass of water sitting on the coffee table. As she led Karolina to the couch, Nico couldn’t help but notice the open notebook sitting on Leslie’s desk, the visible page half filled in neat script. Leslie was probably working on her next sermon just moments before.

Nico tore her eyes away from the notebook and back to Karolina. She couldn’t dwell on her own emotions in that moment; she had to be strong.

“Stay here until I come get you.” Nico barely registered her mother speaking until the office doors slammed shut. She flinched at the sound, but Karolina didn’t even blink.

“Karolina,” Nico tried to get her attention but it didn’t work. She brought her hand to Karolina’s cheek, “Hey, look at me.”

Karolina’s glassy eyes slowly tore away from the empty space she was fixated on, and as they did, the tears seemed to well even more.

“Nico-” Karolina’s voice caught, and her face crumbled at that moment, any bets of trying to be brave or unaffected off the table. 

“I know.” Nico pulled her in closer than she felt like she ever had in that moment and Karolina’s cries exploded into her chest. It hurt, knowing how much pain Karolina must have been in.

(The next morning, and every morning since, Karolina pretended like she was okay. That she didn’t have to witness her parents’ assassination via gunblast or that it wasn’t in the very place she grew up worshipping tranquility, and she pretended that every night she didn’t wake up to the sound of her own screams, covered in sweat and tears at the premise of having to relive that very moment for the rest of her indefinite conscious years on the hellscape that was now earth.

Nico pretended not to notice, the only comfort allowed by Karolina being the soft hand that clutched her own after every turbulent night.)

-

“ _Molly!”_

Nico’s eyes jerk open at the sound of Karolina’s shout. Her gaze softens at the sight of a disturbed Karolina, and just as she’s about to wake her from what Nico’s assuming is a bad nightmare, a loud thump on the side of the RV does it for her.

Karolina shoots up in the bed, eyes wide and heart pounding, her revolver cocked and displayed out in front of her. 

“What the fuck was that?” Karolina’s out of breath, probably reeling from yet _another_ nightmare, but her hands are steady, ready to take the shot if she needs to. 

“I don’t know,” Nico has a sinking feeling in her stomach, as if they’re about to have a really bad night, “It was too controlled to be a walker.”

Karolina keeps the pistol out in front of her as she moves over the edge of the bed. She lowers her voice.

“If it were a person wouldn’t they have tried to come inside by now?”

Nico inches close behind her.

“What if they’re taunting us?” Nico whispers, “We have no idea what kind of lunatics are out here with us.”

Karolina bites her lip, the once soft skin now worn down from months of stressful brainstorming. 

She looks at Nico and motions for her to duck down, and Nico joins her under the large window next to their bed. Karolina slowly lifts up a small part of the blinds, barely enough to see the outside of the RV. 

Karolina gasps, ducking just as the figures turn toward the window. Nico peers out the tiniest bit, her reaction mimicking Karolina’s.

“Is that-”

“It can’t be.” 

“I thought he was-”

The desert suddenly feels too small as there’s a knock on the door. Nico’s breath catches when she hears his voice.

“I’ve been waiting to catch up with you two.”

-

Nico remembers the night they left as a distant memory. It’s one of the things she chooses to forget, rather than wishing she could. 

It was no shock that her mom devised an escape. All of their parents suddenly started having secret meetings. Nico could tell something was up. 

She remembered right after Frank and Leslie that none of them talked to each other. They made it a point to appear unrelated and unconnected, like they hadn’t been raising their kids together for the last 17 years. 

When Nico and Karolina were finally able to leave Leslie’s office, Nico’s mom brought Jane Stein with her. Karolina was going to be a Stein for the foreseeable future. 

(Nico knew Chase had always dreamed of that, but she didn’t think that this was how he’d assume it would go down.)

They spent the next three weeks living in silent chaos. Jonah forced strict rules amongst the congregation. No one was to leave, and no one was to come in.

(Alex tried to make an escape. Nico blocks out her own turbulent memories of that night, all too familiar to what became of Frank and Leslie. Jonah made a statement that night. His piece was war.)

He allowed for one hour of free time a day with promises of upping the allowance once he felt the congregation could be trusted. All of their parents started holding secret meetings during this time, and then one night Nico was woken up.

The kids were barely able to escape before Jonah caught their parents in the parking lot. Nico remembers thinking how weird it was that all the kids were getting into a separate car. 

She hates her parents for making that sacrifice. 

-

“Shit!” Nico reaches for her katana under the bed. 

“I thought you killed him.” Karolina’s eyes meet hers, screaming with worry.

“If by killed you mean I shoved a fucking sword through the front of his chest and right out the back, then yeah, I thought so too.” 

“ _Fuck!”_ They both jump as there’s another knock on the door.

“What do we do?” 

-

Molly was Karolina’s breaking point. It’s one of the few nights that Nico remembers as clear as the moment it happened, (even though she’s willed her mind a _thousand_ times to repress it).

She doesn’t ever think she’ll be able to get the screams out of her head.

It started off like any supply run.

(Well, not quite any. They had just lost Gert, so everyone was on edge. Looking back, Nico thought that maybe Gert was the glue that held them all together. Once she was gone, they started to crack.)

She remembers it started with an argument.

“We’ll take the side door. Chase, you enter first with me and then Nico and Molly will bring up the rear once we’re sure the place is clear.” Karolina was talking low. They were still worried about noise at that point.

“Why not just go through the front? We know there’s nothing in there already.” 

“Are you serious right now?” Karolina had paused, her voice rising just enough to alert the autonomous alarm in the pit of Nico’s stomach.

Chase just looked at her, a blank stare across his face.

“We _just_ lost Gert because we split up. Do you really want to go through that again?”

Nico remembers how quickly Chase got angry at that.

“Do you really think I _ever_ want to lose someone like that again?”

“Your decision making skills haven’t really been saying the same lately.”

Nico grimaced at Karolina’s comment. Her and Chase had been going at it ever since they lost Gert. They both blamed themselves but didn’t want to admit it, Nico could tell, so they just blamed each other. It was easier that way. 

“Guys come on,” Molly jumped in, always the voice of reason, “Gert wouldn’t want this.”

“She’s right.” Nico said, “Let’s just stick together and go through either entrance. We’re always safer in numbers, we know that.”

“You’re siding with him?” Karolina turned Nico, and she didn’t look like the Karolina Nico was used to. She looked tired, and sad, but most of all angry. Nico supposed they were all angry back then. They had a lot to be mad about.

“What-no, that’s not what I’m saying,” Nico grabbed one of Karolina’s hands, “All I’m saying is that things could have changed in there since the last time we went in, like _you_ said, and it might be safer if we all went in together, to back each other up.” 

Karolina chewed her lip for a few seconds before nodding. 

“Okay, yeah, you’re right,” She looked up at Chase, “I’m sorry Chase, I’ve just been a little on edge.”

Chase returned a sad smile. 

“Me too, Karolina.”

“Can you guys hurry up this lovefest?” Molly intervened, “I’m starving.” 

The three of them laughed quietly, and Nico ruffled Molly’s hair. Chase held up his bat. 

“I’ll take lead.” 

They all nodded in response, getting ready to follow him through the side door of the abandoned Whole Foods. 

He turned the knob lightly and then pulled the door open as quickly he could. A walker immediately rushed up on the group and Chase swung his bat right into its head, smashing its decomposing brains into the door frame. 

Chase huffed as the body fell to his feet.

“Think that’s all?” 

“Let’s push forward,” Karolina nodded, “Stay on guard.”

They crept slowly in through the breakroom, the corpses of walkers they’d killed long ago reminding them of their past travels through this location. They approached the door leading into the main part of the supermarket and paused. Chased grabbed this knob even lighter than the first, not knowing how many potential walkers there could be behind this door, and lightly pushed it open. He poked his head through and checked the surrounding isle.

“This one’s clear.” he said, and pushed it open wider. They all stepped into the isle, the barren shelves a reminder of what used to be. They all huddled to the shelves for cover. They’d made a secret stash in this supermarket the first time they came. As they’d expected, it became more and more empty every time they visited, and this time was no different. 

(Except this time was different. It was a strong reminder that it wasn’t just zombies they had to worry about anymore. People were just as vicious.)

Nico remembers it happening so quickly. One minute they were pulling open the ceiling tile they’d marked for their stash, and the next they were caught in an ambush, the sudden rush giving the attackers just enough time to get a few good swings in. They were all so caught up in protecting the stash, they hadn’t noticed when Molly was hit until Chase decked the last guy, his unconscious body slamming to the floor next to her. 

She remembers Karolina’s face went blank, her jaw slack in shock as she dropped to the floor, uselessly attempting to stop the blood flowing too fast from Molly’s temple. The supermarket was silent, the only audible sound the heavy huffing of Chase catching his breath. 

Karolina pulled her hands off of Molly’s sentient body, not quite sure what to do with the shaking masses as fresh blood dripped off her fingertips. She stared at them, her breaths coming faster, more violent.

“Oh my god,” she pushed out, her face scrunching into something of pain and disgust. She took in a gasp of air, the release seeming to get caught somewhere in between an attempted curse and a silent scream. Nico dropped to the floor beside her, tearing off her sweatshirt and placing it over Karolina’s hands, trying to soak up as much of the red as she could. 

“Hey,” she whispered, fighting back her own tears as she tucked some of Karolina’s hair behind her ear, trying to ignore the sight before her. “Why don’t we go back into the break room?”

She made nervous eye contact with Chase, his huffing slowed down but his face was just as solemn as the two of theirs. He nodded. 

“Okay,” she huffed to herself. 

She stood up, Karolina following her. Nico looked back at Chase, and they locked eyes, neither daring to look down at the ground below. Chase just nodded, and Nico did too. They both knew what had to be done. 

Nico covered Karolina’s ears as the gunshot went off, and she doesn’t know how long they sat there before Chase returned, empty handed.

The stash was empty.

—

“Do you think this is penance?”

Nico’s head rolled over, her lackadaisical expression interrupted with the furrow of her brows, confusion masking her features for a moment.

“What do you mean?”

Karolina sighs, her hand coming to a rest on top of her forehead. Nico can’t tell if it’s to emphasise her exasperation or to mask her eyes from the sun.

“Like...this whole zombie thing. It was like one day everything was alright and then all of the sudden the gates of hell opened up on the world.” She brings her hand back down and shakes her head. “Maybe God couldn’t think of a way to fix it all.” 

Nico wanted to laugh but she didn't. 

“You’re talking to your resident Atheist, here, Lina.” 

Karolina huffs and rolls over to face Nico.

“But what if? What if the world really got so bad that higher powers just had to end it?”

Nico faces her and brushes a lock of hair out of Karolina’s face. She mulls over it for a second before speaking.

“I think sometimes...things just happen.” 

“I just can’t accept that.”

Nico bit her lip, dark eyes locked with bright blue.

“Can you accept this?” 

Nico leaned over and brought her hand to Karolina’s face, Karolina smiling at the presence of Nico’s lips against hers.

“I think I can manage.”

-

Nico peeks out the window again and weighs her options. They could go out there and fight them off, but there’s five of them _minimum_ and Nico doesn’t know if she’s ready to face what losing a fight could mean for them.

Their other option is to drive.

-

“We need to get far away from here.” Nico eyed Karolina as she spoke, who hadn’t said much of anything since they left the grocery store. They went about four miles before they all needed to stop. They found a quiet area to camp out in for a couple of hours.

Chase had been pacing in front of the two. Nico always wondered how his shoes lasted so long. She remembered three month summers where a pair of vans could barely stand two months traveling through concert grounds and the moonlit streets of downtown LA. Now their shoes needed to last them what felt like a lifetime.

(The clunky boots ended up doing her a favor. Her mom had to be laughing at her, somewhere.)

“You know I can’t do that, Nico,” He pauses as he looks up at her, eyes a little wilder than before. “I need to find Gert. I need to find our _parents!_ ”

“Chase-” 

“I know what you’re going to say. I don’t care,” He looked down, kicking imaginary rocks with his busted sneakers. “They might be out there still.” 

“Chase, it’s too dangerous for us here. People know our faces. They obviously know where we’ve been stashing supplies. It’s only a matter of time before we’re caught up to.”

“What are the odds that some freak cult leader is still obsessed with us _four_ months after we escaped?”

“What are the odds he’s _not_?” 

They stared at each other for what felt like hours, a standoff that had been building for months.

Nico wasn’t crazy. Jonah’s words haunted her ever since he left, promises of the true light and dead sinners. His henchmen had gone after them before. Every time they think they’re safe, it’s either a dead person who wants to eat them, or an alive person who wants to murder them. 

“She’s right.”

It felt anticlimactic, how Nico and Chase broke their staring contest to look at Karolina. Like one of those moments from a movie that Nico knew she’d never get to experience again. It was like a switch went off in Karolina. Like everything they thought she was— _knew_ she was—was gone.

“He’s not going to stop,” Karolina stood up from the trailer. “Whatever our parents did-he wants vengeance. He’s a psycho who has _us_ in his sights and he’s going to keep coming after us until he puts each of us into the ground. We need to leave.”

Chase sighed and Nico just looked at Karolina, a silent nod of confirmation between the two. They were a team. They always would be.

Nico moved closer to Chase, resting a hand on his shoulder. She remembered how he nearly shivered at her touch, and when they met eyes again, his no longer had that fire. 

“I can’t go with you.” Chase looked down to where his hand laid, and Nico cursed at the sight.

“Chase-” Karolina lurched forward.

“When?” 

“Two nights ago. Behind the school.” His eyes screamed with worry, but Nico could tell he was trying to be strong. She knew it was his only choice. 

“You don’t have that long.” Nico said. It was a statement. Things like that, they were absolute.

“I can’t go with you guys. I just-I need to know. Before I-”

“It’s okay. We understand.” Karolina grabbed his other hand, holding it tight in her own.

“I love you guys.” Chase’s eyes were welled up, and Nico couldn’t think of anything that humanity had done to deserve _this._

(In the end, she’s held onto the fact that Chase and Gert were saved from this hellhole. She hoped they were happy together. Wherever that may be.)

-

Nico looks down at the keys in her hands. She looks back up at Karolina. She knows they’re thinking of the same two options.

“Road trip?” Nico asks even though she can already see the answer on Karolina’s face.

“No,” Karolina shakes her head. “We stay and fight.”

“Are you sure?” 

Karolina pauses before crashing her lips against Nico’s as if it’s the last time she might ever get to again. Nico doesn’t want to accept that it might be.

“I love you.” She says, when they pull apart.

“I love you too.”

They move through the RV to the front, katana and revolver at the ready. Nico takes one last look at Karolina, blue eyes now bursting with red, waiting for the signal to go.

“Time to set a world record, baby.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!


End file.
